


Rebirth

by SneakyHufflepuff



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Character Study, F/F, Gen, POV Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-03
Updated: 2014-03-14
Packaged: 2017-12-25 11:18:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/952451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SneakyHufflepuff/pseuds/SneakyHufflepuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first thing Maya noticed was the unobtrusive hum of electrical equipment that surrounded her, subtly different from the hum of her lab. The second thing she noticed was that, contrary to her expectations, she was still alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my fabulous beta, lar_laughs.

The first thing Maya noticed was the unobtrusive hum of electrical equipment that surrounded her, subtly different from the hum of her lab. The second thing she noticed was that, contrary to her expectations, she was still alive. Fast joy overwhelmed her, at the blood pumping through her veins, at the tingle in her limbs that meant she was improbably, gloriously, _alive_. 

Images flashed in front of her eyelids; the news reports with the outline of bodies that had been obliterated by the application of her invention, Pepper Potts turning from relaxed to terrified in a heartbeat, Stark trying to fast-talk his way out of Killian’s ire and, finally, the sneer on Killian’s face as he shot her. In that moment she had been sure that she was going to die, or, worse, become infected. Had Killian succeeded in his plans? Was she going to become one of his soldiers, kept alive at his whim? She could feel herself begin to panic. The hospital stench of cleaning fluid and pre-packaged food assailed her nostrils as she began to breath in and out, faster and faster.

The hum of the machines turned into an ear-splitting beeping. Maya tried to reason her way through the situation to depress her heart rate and slow her breathing. She failed, unable to process the insufficient information she had to make heads or tails of her situation.

“Good. You’re awake.” A husky voice, out of place in the antiseptic surroundings, intruded on Maya’s thoughts.

Maya opened her eyes and turned her head. Her vision was blurry without her contact lenses. _Good_ , Maya thought, _The Extremis would have fixed that_. She could make out a roughly human shaped blur of red and black about ten feet away from her. 

“What happened?” Maya asked. Her control on her emotions was shaky, and a tear leaked from one corner of her eye.

“Stark escaped. Your lab-techs kept you alive until S.H.I.E.L.D. got there.” Maya flipped through her memory; S.H.I.E.L.D. was the shadowy program that had been involved in the Alien Invasion of Manhattan. Killian had gone out of his way to avoid their attention, and, at that point, Maya had been so focused on her research that she hadn’t examined the situation closely. One oversight among many.

The unknown woman stepped closer, coming into focus. She was unmistakably beautiful, with full lips and piercing blue eyes, dressed in a black bodysuit. “You’re in a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility and expected to make a fully recovery.” The woman paused, then continued, as if sensing Maya’s need for information. “Killian is dead. Tony Stark, Colonel James Rhodes and Pepper Potts defeated him, and the world is safe until the next megalomaniac comes along.” There was an edge of casual amusement in her words, as if she dealt with such matters on a regular basis.

Maya exhaled in relief at the news of Killian’s death, but was unable to suppress a stab of guilt. If she had just gotten him help instead of feeding into his delusions of grandeur, maybe the entire mess wouldn’t have happened. “Who are you?” she asked the woman.

“Agent Natasha Romanoff. I’ll be your guide for your first week at S.H.I.E.L.D.” 

“My first week?” Maya answered her own question before Romanoff could. “They’re not letting me out.” Maya closed her eyes again, shutting out the world for a brief moment to steel herself for what was to come.

“The rest of the world thinks you’re dead, and given the information you have locked in your brain, S.H.I.E.L.D. would prefer to keep it that way, at least until the media scrutiny dies down.” Romanoff’s statement was matter of fact, her face expressionless, but Maya got the sense she didn’t entirely agree with the decision.

“So they’ll debrief me, and then what?” Maya asked, failing to keep the fear from leaking into her voice.

“You’ll be encouraged to continue your research, in a different direction. Once S.H.I.E.L.D. determines you aren’t a threat to world security, you’ll become another salaried employee. You’ll have a new identity, and be free to leave.” 

Romanoff made no attempt to be comforting, stating the facts. Maya found that honesty more reassuring than any soothing words. Still, Maya worried. Without her name, without her degrees, without a lab, she was nothing. And it wasn’t like she deserved any better. So many people dead, just because she had the arrogance to believe she could hack human DNA without consequences and the naivety to think that Killian would use her invention for good. Throwing any away remaining dignity she had, Maya began to cry quietly. 

Romanoff tactfully withdrew, leaving Maya to cry alone until sleep claimed her. 

\---

The next few days were a blur of medication and questions. Romanoff would appear at random intervals throughout, giving her information that her interrogators had considered nonessential. One interrogator told her that the actor portraying the Mandarin was being prosecuted by federal authorities. It was Romanoff that let her know his sentence would be less than ten years once the lawyers were finished. 

“Why are you here?” Maya asked Romanoff the fourth time she came to visit. Just when she thought she couldn’t handle the guilt or her circumstances, the agent was there, her presence warding off the dark.

“At the moment? To take you to your new lab,” Natasha responded.

The door to her room opened, and one of her interrogators, a man with large ears who hadn’t told her his name, entered. Maya had mentally dubbed him Dumbo, but he lacked both the charm and the kindness of the cartoon he was named for.

“Dr Hansen, I’m here to take you to your new lab. You’ll love it! Top of the line equipment-“ He abruptly stopped speaking at Natasha’s glare.

“I have that covered, Agent Lewis,” Romanoff said calmly.

The man opened his mouth in protest, but Natasha stared him down like he was a bug under a microscope. “Of course Agent Romanoff, I’ll, just, go, then,” he stammered awkwardly.

“I’ve noticed you’ve been skimping on your firearms training. I suggest you report to the range,” Romanoff said, voice cold.

The man gulped, eyes flicking to the the pistols that were fitted snugly to Romanoff’s thighs. He left the room rapidly, goosebumps visible on his arms.

Maya turned to look at Romanoff, who looked innocently back. She reviewed the few interactions she had seen Romanoff have S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel. Given their body language, she knew that the agent was high up the totem pole, but that was the first time someone had seemed genuinely frightened of her. 

“Who are you? Really?” Maya asked.

“That’s a more complicated question than you think it is, Doctor Hansen.” Agent Romanoff was, by all appearances, a young and beautiful woman, but in that moment she seemed impossibly old, lost in the past.

“Call me Maya,” she replied on impulse, hoping to break the tension.

Romanoff came back to the present, gesturing to the wheelchair that had been used to cart Maya to and from the interrogation room. “Your lab is waiting, Maya. Let’s go.” 

Maya levered herself up, noting the stiffness of her body. Agent Romanoff didn’t move to help, for which she was grateful. She was tired of people fussing over her when they clearly cared only about the dangerous knowledge stored in her head, and nothing for her.

Romanoff wheeled her down the hall, towards the lab. The S.H.I.E.L.D. workers, dressed in bodysuits straight from a science-fiction television show, passed without comment. The lab was on the same level as the hospital wing, and if Maya was honest, it was the most up to date lab she’d ever been in, easily surpassing the one Killian supplied. But the cold metal surfaces were surrounded by glass. No matter where she moved in the lab, those outside could observe her. She shuddered.

“To answer your question, I’m someone who was in a very similar situation to you, once,” Agent Romanoff said simply. “I requested this assignment so you would have someone who understood.”

“A similar situation? Do you know how many people died because of Extremis?” Maya asked, guilt cracking her voice.

“Yes. Our pre-S.H.I.E.L.D. bodycounts are roughly equal,” Romanoff informed her.

Maya blinked in surprise at the revelation, before setting it aside to think about later. “I’d like to spend some time here, alone,” she told the agent.

“Of course. Your future lab assistants will arrive in an hour, and you must return to your room before then so you can be assigned your new identity.”

“Thank you, Agent Romanoff.” Maya felt her heart lift at this display of trust. At least Romanoff didn’t think she’d suddenly go mad scientist and create a death ray if left unsupervised, as some of her interrogators so obviously did.

“You can call me Natasha,” the agent answered before leaving the lab, hips swaying slightly in a predator’s walk.

\---

Maya pushed her newly blonde hair out of her face and leaned closer to the screen. She was still getting used to her dyed hair and chunky glasses, part of her identity as Doctor Lucy Phillips. The results of her experiment were exactly as expected; she was no closer to isolating the true super soldier serum, even with the fresh samples of Steve Roger’s blood.

“Doctor Phillips.” Natasha’s now familiar voice sounded from next to her.

Maya jumped. “Agent Romanoff! Good to see you.” It was good to see her, good to have someone around who knew who she was before.

“I trust you’ve settled in well?” Natasha enquired, eyes flicking up and down Maya’s disguise.

Maya suddenly felt uncomfortably dowdy in her comfortable shoes, stained lab-coat and untailored slacks. “Uh, yes. As comfortable as I can be in a glorified fishbowl, I suppose.”

Natasha rewarded her half-hearted joke with a smile, and Maya smiled back, the muscles on her face unused to the action. Maya’s smile faded. What had happened to her? She always used to be the fun scientist, the one researchers enjoyed having in the lab. Her smile had motivated colleagues, her laugh had been infectious. Lucy Phillips was a dull drone in comparison.

“How has your week progressed, Agent Romanoff?” Maya asked, real interest in her tone.

“You know, this and that. My body thinks I’m in Thailand and my tongue thinks I’m in France.” Natasha said, giving enough details to tantalize but not to reveal anything classified.

“I’ve never been to Thailand, what’s it like?” Maya asked.

“Hot.” At Natasha’s words, Maya’s eyes, seemingly of their own accord, flicked from the hint of collarbone visible at the edges of Natasha’s bodysuit. She couldn’t help but imagine the agent in clothing more suited to a warmer climate, but she shut that train of thought down before it went any further. Maya knew she didn’t deserve any sort of happiness, and Natasha was her only friend here. Any sort of fling or flirtation that she would have embraced in her old life was a bad idea in her new one. 

“Well, everything here appears to be going smoothly here, I should return to work,” Natasha said.

“Come back soon.” Maya didn’t even bother hiding how much she wanted Natasha to return to her lab, as aware as she was that unseen eyes were constantly watching her.

“I will,” Natasha promised.

As Maya turned back to her work, a thought struck her. The previous experiment had been going about it all wrong, looking for what was in Roger’s blood. Shouldn’t she be looking for what _wasn’t_ there? She began to type on her computer, her fingers flying across the keyboard in a futile attempt to keep up with her thoughts.

\---

Maya bustled around the lab, her two lab techs weaving their movements with hers interchangeably. She had gotten to know their quirks. Taylor had an obsessive love for the Mets, while Cho wore an ever-changing roster of designer high heels. They were good people, and she was glad to have them; still, she felt like she was living a lie every time they asked her a question about her life. She didn’t know how spies did it. Five o’clock passed, and her lab techs left for homes and personal lives. Maya had nothing but her room, half hidden in a corner of the base. 

The door to the lab opened with a hiss, but Maya remained focused on the screen in front of her. Every so often they sent by a trusted scientist to look over her shoulder; it was irritating, and she found it best to ignore them. Perhaps they would trust her once she made the announcement she could re-create super soldiers. When the next round of tests was completed, she could be sure of her findings and show them her worth.

“Good afternoon, Doctor Phillips.” Natasha’s husky voice cut through her concentration like a sharp scalpel through human skin. 

“Good afternoon, Agent Romanoff.” Maya tried to tell herself that she absolutely wasn’t wearing the thin sweater that hugged her curves in the hopes that Natasha would stop by. Unfortunately, she was self aware enough to realize what had started as a small attraction had metastasized into full blown infatuation in the past few weeks.

With a smooth liquid motion, Natasha stepped forward and set a pair elegant gold-rimmed glasses on the bench next to Maya. “For you.”

“They’re definitely an improvement over these.” Maya gestured to her chunky black glasses, which she had set aside for the close-up work of modeling chemical compounds on her computer. “Thanks. What do I owe you?” She ran her eyes over Natasha’s outfit; jeans, a nice-t-shirt and a leather jacket that were all less sophisticated than she expected from the agent, but did nothing to diminish her beauty. 

“It’s a gift. And, at least this way, you look less like a sexy scientist Halloween costume.” Natasha paused, letting a brief smile touch her full lips. “Despite how well you pull if off.”

Maya laughed outright at the joke, a smug voice in her mind pointing out that Natasha considered her attractive. “But I should at least buy you lunch, or something. Even if it is at the cafeteria.” Maya made a face. Cafeteria food was acceptable when she was on a roll and just needed sustenance to continue her research, but it had gotten old after a couple of months. 

“It’s a date. In fact, I’ve been told to inform you that you are now allowed ten hours of shore leave every week. Congratulations. You can spend some of that stored up paycheck by taking me out to my favorite Italian restaurant.”

Maya grinned, feeling somewhat like her old self. “When?”

Natasha leaned forward, eyes wide and innocent. “How does now sound?” There was a challenge behind her words. 

Maya was going to have to remember to expect surprises whenever Natasha used her innocent expression. “Now sounds perfect.” Maya answered Natasha’s challenge. “Just let me get my things.” She hastily closed the program she had been working on. Maya expected to feel happier about her release, but the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility had become comforting in a Stockholm-ish kind of way. The outside world, once her playground, now seemed full of potential dangers that had never seemed real to her before. But she doubted much could go wrong with Natasha at her side. Maya had heard enough of S.H.I.E.L.D. gossip to know how lethal the Black Widow was. 

As if aware of Maya’s thoughts, Natasha crossed her arms and casually leaned back against the lab bench, confidence in every line of her body. Maya dragged her eyes away from Natasha, shrugged off her lab coat and moved to pick up her purse, outstretched arm pausing as the lab’s main computer beeped at her. The tests were in; excitement flooded her veins. 

“One minute?” Maya asked Natasha with an apologetic smile. 

Natasha raised a skeptical eyebrow, but obviously declined to be offended at Maya’s distraction, gesturing for her to continue. Maya hurried over to the computer screen, promising herself only a quick peek; she had a date to get to, after all. She scanned the results quickly, finding they were perfectly in line with her theories. She had done it, succeeded where Bruce Banner and others before her had failed, but she didn’t feel the triumph she thought she would. Making a split second decision, Maya tapped a few keys, modifying the results so it looked like her line of inquiry was completely fruitless. Her hands shook slightly, as she did it. 

“What is it?” Natasha asked, concerned.

“It’s the recent round of tests. I thought they were promising, but I guess I was wrong,” Maya lied. Lying to a date and an expert spy at the same time wasn’t a smart move, but Maya knew at her core that giving S.H.I.E.L.D. the formula for the super soldier serum was wrong, and would take her down the same rabbit hole as Extremis had, all those years before. 

Natasha looked at her searchingly, then nodded, once. She had caught Maya’s lie and agreed with her decision. “I’m sure I can figure out a way to console you.”

“I’m sure you can.”


	2. Renewal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a short epilogue I had sitting around in my WIP folder without realizing.

_Six months later_

Natasha woke up to the sound of typing for the third time in a week, the acoustics of Maya’s new apartment magnifying the sound. She opened her eyes to see Maya at her desk, her face lit only by her laptop screen. Maya looked good, even with the dark circles under her eyes. She seemed stronger and happier each day she got to go home to a place that wasn't a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. 

“Another breakthrough?” Natasha asked sleepily. 

“I think so,” replied Maya, eyes not moving from the screen, fingers flying. “If I can just-“ she pressed a final key and hummed in satisfaction. “There! All done.” 

Maya turned towards Natasha, beaming. “No one can say that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t get its money’s worth.”

Maya was working on a way to make S.H.I.E.L.D.’s vehicles more energy efficient. Once her design was added to pre-existing machines, they could use solar energy to reduce their use of petrol. Under S.H.I.E.L.D.’s agreement with Maya, they could also sell the patent to the private sector without Maya seeing a single cent, but that was a small price to pay for Maya’s continued freedom. 

“Come back to bed,” Natasha said. She pushed down her worries about how S.H.I.E.L.D. was changing, and the dark whispers about new management she had heard running through the corridors. She still had a few more hours before she had to go on her next mission, and she intended to spend them with her girlfriend.


End file.
